Most impressive visual moment in ballet

[George C]

Thanks Alison. My first thread, probably collapse like a pricked balloon.

Following Trogs comment about the final moment of Le Baiser in her remarks concerning BRB's latest programme I had to confess that although I do find the ballet too long that final moment is truly stunning. I was about to say that ,to me,it is one of the really great visual moments in ballet when it crossed my mind that this might make an interesting thread. As I was about to put that one at the top of my list I suddenly thought of the curtain rise on Enigma Variations or the curtain rise on the Capulets ballroom . Oh dear - I may have stirred up a hornet's nest !

[Two Pigeons]

the end of the Kingdom of the Shades from La Bayadere, the curtain going up on the last act of Raymonda, King Rat coming out of the fireplace in the BRB version of The Nutcracker.  Will that do for starters?

[Lizbie1]

The ribbon promenade in Fille always makes my breath catch.

 

Apart from that, call me old-fashioned but I'm a sucker for a stage full of dancers being revealed behind a gauze.

Edited June 27, 2017 by Lizbie1

[Mary]

What to choose there is so much? it's a good topic...

La Valse, - the end or the beginning;

Swan Lake cygnets;

a lot of Romeo and Juliet especially the ballroom scene- and Sleeping Beauty- those great stagefuls of action and movement so overwhelming that your eye doesn't know where to go!-also Winter's Tale Act 2

and of course...The Dream...all of it!

[Duck]

Ashton's Rhapsody - the lead couple slowly walking towards the front of the stage, holding each other tight, heads tilted towards each other

 

Kylian's Sinfonietta - the dancers performing higher and higher lifts during the final few bars of the music 

 

Bejart's Bolero - the dancers on the floor circling the dancer on the table in ever increasing intensity and numbers 

 

Cranko's R&J - Romeo doing pull-ups on the balcony railing to give good-night kisses to Julia who is back up on the balcony 

 

McGregor's Woolf Works part 3 - the corps representing the waves 

 

The more I type the more visuals come to mind so I'll better stop here ...

 

[Bruce Wall]

For me - just off the top of my very weary head (knowing I have to catch yet another early morning flight) .... it HAS to be ...

 

Curtain rise on Balanchine's Serenade.   

 

No question.

 

No matter where that curtain may rise ... and I've seen a goodly few on different continents .... it is ALWAYS .. 'ahhh' inducing.  

[mauriceC]

As Two Pigeons beat me to the opening of Raymonda Act 3, I will go for the final cortège of "Theme & Variations"

[Amelia]

The last scene - Lamentation - in "Spartacus".

[George C]

Going better than I had hoped !

i agree Bruce - I always gulp when the curtain rises  on Seranade (Safe and comfortable flight by the way )

Glad someone else admitted to being a sucker so I can now admit to loving the end of Penguin Cafe. Yes, gauzes do help to give a touch of magic and where would ballet be without the touch of magic.

[BMC]

The tree growing in the Nutcracker gets me every time, and then the moment Clara dances with the shower of glitter coming down. 

 

The corps de ballet coming down the ramp in Bayadere, the Shades scene

 

Giselle - corps ads ballet in Act 2 when they have their veils on at the beginning of their dance

[bridiem]

Great topic! I agree about that last image in Baiser de la fée - magnificent. Other possibles, some already mentioned:

• RN production of Giselle Act II when the Wilis run on, and turn rapidly one after the other to form a diagonal like a knife
• The final tableau of Dowell's production of Swan Lake - Odette and Siegfried gracefully recumbent after their travails, en route to paradise
• the second section of MacMillan's Concerto - like the heart of the sun
• the endings of so many Balanchine works! He was the master of the visually dazzling finale
• the lights going up on the ballroom scene in MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet
• the opening and closing scenes of Mayerling (in the cemetery) and the opening of the first act proper (crooked banner, sumptuous costumes, thrilling music, and a seemingly endless parade of dancers/characters
• Cinderella coming slowly down the steps to the ballroom in Ashton's Cinderella
• the wall in Akram Khan's Giselle
• the final tableau of The Firebird - a blaze of colour, power, light, music
• the last moments of The Song of the Earth - the slow walk into eternity
• Swan Lake swans, filling the stage with such beauty
• MacMillan's Requiem - the lone white Pie Jesu figure
• the final scene of Bintley's Sons of Horus - ancient Egypt on the move
• the second Pigeon moment (if it behaves)
• Bayadère Shades
• Wayne Eagling's Frankenstein: I have a memory of the orchestra gradually being elevated on an onstage platform, playing away manically; I may have been hallucinating, but it brought the house down

[Melody]

One thing I always used to look forward to in the Smuin Ballet's Christmas ballet was near the end of the first act (Classical Christmas, as opposed to the hilarious Cool Christmas of the second act, which had such visual delights as a shark wearing a Santa hat, and tap-dancing Christmas trees and a chainsaw) in the Jauchzet, Frohlocket number. Most of the cast were onstage from the beginning for the orchestral introduction, but when the singing started with that loud "Jauchzet, Frohlocket!" the ballerina was tossed from the wings, flew across half the stage (well, probably not half but it wasn't an enormous theatre) and landed in the arms of one of the men. At that point there was always a loud gasp from first-time attendees.

[DrewCo]

I now have a brand new one, which is the arrival of Princess Praline in Ratmansky's Whipped Cream--riding on a 'snow Yak' and followed by a parade of magical sweets come to life along with a 'pink Yak' and other creatures as they rescue the sick boy-hero from the hospital or, if you prefer, as they appear, in his delirium, to rescue him. Whipped Cream is a ballet in which every scene (every moment) is a visual delight, but the arrival of Princess Praline -- preceded by ornamental stars suddenly sparkling above the boy's hospital bed and four little dancing cupcakes, so you know something special is about to happen -- well, I found that the most magical. (Sets and costumes by the artist Mark Ryden, his first designs for ballet.)

 

Striking visuals not reliant on sets and costumes? Bridiem already mentioned "the endings of so many Balanchine works." I'll mention two in particular. The final tableau of Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements when the cast forms an image of geometric intricacy, arms as well as legs making strict vertical and horizontal lines but with the ballet's featured men crouched at the front as if ready to spring out at the audience. It's at once formal and threatening. And the final moments of Four Temperaments with repeated arching lifts that appear like springing fountains amid horizontal rows of dancers who themselves seem to summon up and then contain all the physical and emotional energies let loose by the entire ballet. Here, too, the image fuses geometric intricacy and uncontainable life. And yet the tone is entirely different...

Edited June 28, 2017 by DrewCo

[SusanR]

Curtain rise on Serenade

Curtain rise on Suite en Blanc

Final tableau in the Firebird & I also love the bit in the Prodigal son when he embraces his father. Brings tears to my eyes every time!

I'm sure I will think of many other wonderful scenes. What an interesting thread.

[Jan McNulty]

Oh I agree about the opening tableau from Serenade and the final one of Symphony in Three Movements.

 

Also the appearance of King Rat in BRB's Nutcracker - sends shivers down my spine no matter how many times I have seen it ...

 

I would add a scene from Christopher Gable/Michael Pink's Dracula where Dracula comes down from the top of the scenery hanging like a bat.

 

I would also add, not a busy scene, but the scene where Butterfly is waiting fruitlessly for Pinkerton to appear in David Nixon's Madame Butterfly.  It is a masterful use of stillness with Butterfly waiting in her wedding kimono at the bottom of the bridge.  It is heart-rending.

 

The opening of the ballroom scene in Act 3 of Onegin.

 

The spookiness of the Ghost dancers in the final scene of Christopher Bruce's Ghost Dances.

 

The final tableau of Sir Peter Wright's Sleeping Beauty - all gold grandeur and gold confetti coming down.

[Geoff]

The leap - into the trenches, into eternity? - of the last soldier at the end of MacMillan's Gloria. 

[GTL]

Almost all of all of the above for me.   

Can't believe no one has yet mentioned the openings of Rubies and Symphony in C.  At the other end of the spectrum of Sheherezade and Petruschka - those frontcloths with the wonderful music.

My most thrilling snapshot of the RB season: the opening of the Forsythe  Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Vadim Muntagirov and Steven McRea standing together in 5th.

[MAB]

The final moment of Vladimir Vasiliev's Romeo and Juliet when the conductor kneels and joins the lovers hands in death.  When it was danced at the Barbican the conductor was Rostropovich and it took some effort on his part.  It was the last time I ever saw him and just the memory brings me close to tears.

Edited June 28, 2017 by MAB
typo

[Yaffa]

... and when all the RBS students run onto the stage at the end of the Grand Defile

[George C]

We have moved from the idea of a static 'picture' to moving ones which means that I can add another of mine. Previous contributors have mentioned the Christmas tree and the appearance of King Rat in Wright's Nutcracker but,much as I love both ,the moment that really gets to me is when,almost without noticing it we are suddenly in a winter wonderland .I can't even begin to work out how many Nutcrackers I have seen but the end of Act One as Clara is whisked off as the snow falls still ALWAYS brings a lump to my throat.

i am often asked what is my greatest memory of ballet and it goes back well over 60 years when I first saw the flickering entrance across the stage of Fonteyn's  Firebird. I have seen many other dancers in this role but have never since felt the same impact. It was like receiving an electric shock.

[BMC]

Despite being a ballet I'm not particularly keen on, there are some wonderful colours in Scherezade. And I can't remember whether in was the a Bolshoi or the Maryinsky in Le Corsaire when it looked as though there was a real fountain in Le Jardin Anime. 

[Jan McNulty]

7 minutes ago, BMC said:

Despite being a ballet I'm not particularly keen on, there are some wonderful colours in Scherezade. And I can't remember whether in was the a Bolshoi or the Maryinsky in Le Corsaire when it looked as though there was a real fountain in Le Jardin Anime. 

 

Mariinsky - I remember being utterly thrilled by it!

[ninamargaret]

1 hour ago, George C said:

i am often asked what is my greatest memory of ballet and it goes back well over 60 years when I first saw the flickering entrance across the stage of Fonteyn's  Firebird.

My memory is of Fonteyn's perfect arabesque on her entrance in Sleeping Beauty. No one else has ever made such an entrance!

[Two Pigeons]

Mentions of Fonteyn reminds me of another golden moment.  As she walked off the stage, arm in arm with Ashton, at the end of Salut d'Amour she turned and looked at the audience.  Her charisma just rebounded round the auditorium.

 

Added to that two other items which have been mentioned above.  The end of The Firebird and the start of Act 3 of Onegin.

Edited June 28, 2017 by Two Pigeons

[Josephine]

Les Noces - corps patterns in final movement.

 

MacMillan's Requiem - close of In Paradisum, but also many memorable visual elements throughout this work.

 

Giselle raising Albrecht's arm as she returns him to life.

 

Brandstrup's Ceremony of Innocence - a haunting visual exploration of the power of memory throughout this work.

 

Royal Ballet Nutcracker - dance of  the Snowflakes.

[ninamargaret]

Agree totally about Les Noces, but then to me the whole ballet is so beautiful it's difficult to.pick just one point. And I always get a shiver from the growing Christmas tree in Nutcracker!

[Fiz]

Alina Cojacaru's as Giselle in the mad scene and the utter look of heartbreak on her face. Also her implacable face as Tatiana in Onegin. The first and last scenes in Mayerling. The Christmas tree growing in Nutcracker and the snowflake scene. The flashiness Natalia Osipova conveys as Odile as she enchants Siegfried.

[Guest]

I agree with so much of the above and would add: the dancers of Monotones 1 and 2, Crystal Pite's Flight Pattern and Nureyev running across the stage; I never saw Fonteyn as Firebird (wish I had), but will never forget Asylmuratova's untamed creature, struggling to gain her freedom; Sarah Wildor as Ondine, tenderly yet hopelessly caressing Palemon as he lies dead in the murky deep waters. The two ballets I remember hearing the audience gasp at as the curtain goes up are Raymonda Act 3 and Symphony in C.

[Guest]

Does anyone remember Bintley's The Planets? That had some memorable visuals.

 

[Jan McNulty]

Yes, I remember The Planets. Some of it was gorgeously other-worldly.

[Two Pigeons]

The moment at the end of Fille when the harvesters lift Lise up above them and she throws her arms up on the beat of the music.

[Mary]

Now that we are allowed movement, it has to be the ending of Symphony of C, which is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen or ever will see.

 

Reading this thread is the most wonderful antidote to reading the news, thanks everyone! It has really uplifted me with so many happy memories of visual joy.

[Sim]

Indeed, what a lovely thread, and thanks so much George for starting it.  I couldn't possibly condense my thoughts at the moment as I have so many lovely visions of ballet heaven (many of which are already mentioned here), but I am so enjoying reading everyone's posts.